Opposite Day
by MetalGeneral
Summary: Normally when dark entities attack Dreamland, Dedede is the first to fall victim to their curses or possession, but now he appears to be the only person not affected. Dedede wakes up to find everyone acting as they never have before. With no possible causes to the issue to be found, he needs to figure out what happened before everyone drives him nuts!
1. Chapter 1

King Dedede stared long and hard at the waddle dee before him. Yes, it was certainly his top waddle dee; the bandana gave it away immediately, but something was off. Very off. For one, the normally bustling waddle dee was doing absolutely nothing. If there was one thing Dedede could say about Bandana Dee, it was that he was a very hard worker and strived to always find something to do with his time. Instead, he was on the floor of the castle's dining room hall, coloring in a picture book.

Dedede didn't know what to say or do. This was just too strange. There were, in fact, other waddle dees simply ambling about, getting nothing accomplished. It was this that had driven Dedede to finding his top waddle dee to see what was up. After all, there shouldn't have been so many waddle dees in his castle doing absolutely nothing! It was Bandana's job to keep them occupied with work, yet it appeared that for once his top waddle dee was slacking off. This just wasn't how Bandana Dee was, and it made Dedede worry about what could possibly be up with him.

"Bandana, what are you doing?" Dedede finally asked after many minutes of staring at the waddle dee.

Bandana either didn't hear him, or had ignored his king outright. It must have been the former, seeing as Bandana would never disregard his king like that. He was simply too loyal and respectful. So he asked his question again, this time much louder than before. Surprisingly, he ended up with the same result. Well, now he was getting a little ticked off. What was Bandana's deal today?

"Hey, I asked you a question! Answer me!" he demanded, bending down to slam a hand on Bandana's coloring book.

There was a moment of silence, Bandana staring at the hand on his coloring book. Slowly, his gaze drifted upwards, a blank look on his face. Just when Dedede thought that he would be getting nothing from him, the waddle dee finally spoke.

"Screw off."

And Dedede's brain completely shut down.

* * *

That was how Dedede found himself wandering aimlessly around Prism Plains, trying futilely to figure out just what the heck had happened. Bandana Dee had told him to screw off before wordlessly tearing his coloring book away from his king. Then he had continued coloring on as though nothing had happened.

What was wrong with him? He knew Bandana Dee well enough; he would never in a million years act like that. Lazy, disrespectful, with almost a complete lack of any emotion whatsoever? That was not the Bandana Dee he knew. There had to be some sort of explanation for this, and Dedede needed to figure out what that was. The other waddle dees in the castle would be useless, he was sure, but there were others he could talk to. The Meta-Knights, for instance, could possibly be of some help. His top knight had a knack for always knowing what the heck was going on, even if he never bothered to share any of that information with anyone.

So he supposed he wasn't necessarily wandering aimlessly around Prism Plains. He had a set destination in mind, that being the Halberd. He just wasn't really heading in any proper direction, still mulling over Bandana Dee's strange behavior. Though he hated to admit it, he was nearly in shock over the whole ordeal. He hadn't even gotten angry or lashed out at Bandana for his attitude, he had merely walked out of the room in a complete daze. It had been long enough though, he supposed, and it was important that he figure out how to stop this sudden change of character in his top waddle dee.

About to get his bearings and actually head towards the Halberd, two voices caught his attention, making him stop in his tracks. Was that…yelling? Angry yelling? Since when did anyone in Dreamland (besides himself, of course) actually get angry enough to yell like that? Only one of the voices was like that, too, the other sounding more distressed and whiny.

Curiosity piqued, Dedede absolutely had to check out the situation now. He pushed his way past some trees, this being a more heavily forested area of Prism Plains. What he saw beyond was just as confusing as what had transpired with Bandana Dee back in Castle Dedede.

There in the clearing were two puffballs, one pink and one blue. The blue one had his back to Dedede, his wings pulled in close to his body. The king recognized this as a usual nervous habit of the puffball. The pink one, meanwhile, was directly facing his fellow puffball, and Dedede was therefore able to get a very clear look at him. Needless to say, Kirby looked pissed.

For the second time that day, Dedede felt his mind completely stall. Kirby was the one who had been shouting like that? And at Meta Knight? What?

It seemed that his appearance was not going to go ignored either, as it had earlier with Bandana Dee. Kirby took immediate notice of the king, glaring straight at him. This of course got Meta Knight's attention, and the blue puffball whipped around to look at what had distracted Kirby. Once he saw Dedede, his face immediately lit up, and—No, no, wait a minute. His face? Dedede could see his face—?

"Dedede!" came the excited exclamation, Dedede's arms suddenly full of blue puffball.

This was all a bad dream, Dedede was almost certain now. Nightmare must have returned or something, right? Bandana Dee's behavior was strange enough to throw the king into complete shock. How was he supposed to handle…this? He stared blankly at the puffball in his arms, not even bothering to return the hugs and cuddles he was getting. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gestures, but he honestly couldn't deal with this. Not from Meta Knight. This of course wasn't even taking into account what was going on with the other puffball.

If looks could kill, Dedede was certain he'd be dead on the spot. Honestly, he would have been better off not even glancing in the pink puffball's direction, with the glower he was currently receiving. What was going on? He had been so certain that only Bandana Dee would be acting strangely, but now here were both Kirby and Meta Knight, acting angry and affectionate respectively. He had to get some answers. Even if the two were acting just as strangely as Bandana Dee, they at least appeared to be more approachable than the waddle dee. Well, at least Meta Knight did. Dedede was certain Kirby was going to kill him any moment now just for being there.

"What…what's going on?" Dedede finally spat out, glancing down in confusion at the puffball that didn't have murderous intent in his eyes.

Meta Knight looked up at him, a big smile on his face. Dedede felt himself physically cringe. This was wrong on so many levels.

"What do you mean? Kirby and I were just hanging out! He got really mad, though. He's always mad," he said with a pout, glancing back accusingly at the pink puffball. Kirby was too focused on glaring daggers at Dedede to notice.

None of this did anything to answer Dedede's question. Kirby was not always mad. Sure, the pink puffball was known to show a little anger when some evil being was threatening his home and friends, but very rarely did he get angry any other time besides that. Now, though? Kirby looked like he wanted nothing more than to kill him on the spot, and he was getting more and more nervous every moment he was reminded of this.

"Okay," Dedede took a deep breath. He could deal with this! He would figure something out! "Why is Kirby so angry right now?" He quickly noticed how his tone was shifting the longer he spoke to Meta Knight, and he realized that it almost sounded like the tone someone would use to talk to a child. This of course was a disturbing thought to him, but he refrained from cringing again.

"Well, I wanted to hang out and have a good time with Kirby because we hadn't seen each other in a while, so I said, 'Wanna go hang out in the woods with me?', and he said yes! So we were just walking through the woods for a while, but then Kirby mentioned that he was getting hungry, and that was fine, because I was getting hungry, too! I could feel my tummy getting all rumbly, and I feel like he and I are always really hungry, so I asked if he wanted to get some ice cream with me, but he got all mad because he said he didn't need ice cream and that I was stupid for asking such a stupid question and—"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Dedede spoke over him before he could go on any further. This was so frustrating. Bandana Dee was the one who usually talked so much and was so passionate that he would ramble on. Meta Knight didn't appear to be rambling on in the same way Bandana Dee normally would, though. It was more like he was quickly panicking the longer he spoke.

Either way, the puffball was being absolutely no help, much to Dedede's rapidly growing dismay. Meta Knight was supposed to be the one who always knew what was going on; the one that Dedede could rely on when things got too chaotic and confusing. Usually the person he would go to after Meta Knight was Bandana Dee, but he couldn't even get a proper response out of said waddle dee anymore.

So he stood there, still holding the blue puffball in his arms, and contemplated just what he should do now. He glanced over at Kirby one more time, but quickly dismissed him the moment the puffball took a menacing step forward. He stopped advancing as Dedede backed up and looked elsewhere, though this gave the king little comfort. For a cute, pink puffball, Dedede was genuinely afraid of the little guy at the moment.

Okay, there had to be something he could get out of Meta Knight. Out of the two people he could fully trust (sometimes three, depending on how he was feeling about Kirby at any given moment), Meta Knight was the only approachable one that was willing to talk. The puffball had to know something, anything to sate Dedede's sanity.

"Meta Knight, what were you doing yesterday? Do you remember?" he questioned, already dreading the answer.

"Nope!" Meta Knight cheerfully replied. "Okay, well, not really," he contemplated. "I mean, I did a bunch of stuff on my ship! And I hung out with Sailor and Mace and we had a really good time! But I didn't want to be stuck on my ship anymore, because I just didn't want to be there, and I wanted to see all of my other friends. Then I went to Kirby's place because again I hadn't seen him in so long and I really just want to hang out with him more, you know? So I went to his house and we had a really fun sleepover and now he's angry again." His pout returned.

Of course, Dedede instantly regretted asking anything again. The puffball kept rambling on about the least important things, almost as though he didn't actually know what to talk about, but still wanted to talk regardless. It was…awkward? Dedede perked up at that. Yes, it was awkward! Meta Knight was the epitome of social awkwardness, and it appeared that he still had at least that going for him. He also mentioned earlier that he wanted to get ice cream with Kirby. Despite how much he always denied it, Meta Knight loved ice cream, and appeared to still love it. So there had to be hope, right?

Feeling a little more optimistic, Dedede continued on with another question.

"So, you mind telling me where your mask and armor are?"

Meta Knight looked at him as though he had gone insane. This was not good.

"Why would I want to wear that?" he started, clearly confused. "People wouldn't be able to see how cute I am that way!" he finished cheerfully, giggling afterwards.

Dedede couldn't help it, he dropped the puffball and immediately backed away. He stared in horror at Meta Knight, who now looked like he was going to start crying any minute. Under normal circumstances, Dedede would have felt terrible. After all, he actually liked Meta Knight, and you know you've done something horribly wrong if it looks like the guy's going to start crying. Meta Knight just didn't do stuff like that. He told the king numerous times in the past that crying made him uncomfortable, from both himself and others, and that he avoided it at all costs. So yes, Dedede knew he should be feeling terrible right now, but these were not normal circumstances. This was not Meta Knight, and that pink puffball currently stomping towards the king with murderous intent was definitely not Kirby.

Close to having a mental breakdown over Meta Knight's behavior and genuinely terrified over what Kirby was about to do, Dedede did the only thing he could think of and booked it. There was nothing here for him but insanity and death, of that he was certain. There had to be someone else he could go to, someone who knew what was going on and could help him. He just needed to find them.


	2. Chapter 2

There was no one that could help him.

At a loss for what to do next, Dedede had continued on to the Halberd, certain that at least one of his knights would be there and still be sane. His trip to the warship had ended in about the same way as his trip to the clearing with the puffballs, unfortunately. Only this time the trip had been even shorter.

He had found and entered the ship, which had at first appeared eerily empty. Though he initially thought that maybe none of the ship's crew were aboard at the moment, he was soon corrected upon entering the control room. There he found all of the Meta-Knights save for Meta Knight himself (thank god), except something was wrong, very obviously wrong. Before he knew it, Dedede found his imminent mental breakdown approaching even sooner than before.

There was Sailor Dee, shouting different orders at the top of his lungs to the four knights. If Dedede didn't know better, he'd say the little waddle dee was acting like a drill sergeant towards the others, belittling and screaming obscenities at them. Axe Knight was hiding in a corner, doing an act that looked suspiciously like crying; Mace Knight was in one of the chairs at the control panel, staring blankly at said panel and visibly shaking; and Javelin and Trident Knight were doing…something. Dedede wasn't sure what that something was, but they were clearly very excited about it, dancing around and ignoring Sailor Dee's shouted orders and insults entirely.

Dedede escaped before any of them could even notice him.

So now he sat in his room back at Castle Dedede. After that entire debacle, he was now certain that not a single person in Dreamland was acting normally. On his way back to both the castle and to his room, he had taken notice of a few different civilians and waddle dees that he had passed. All of them were acting oddly, and the overall state of Prism Plains and Castle Dedede were a bit chaotic to say the least. The waddle dees in his castle were either lazing around, doing nothing, or actually picking fights with each other. Completely unable to deal with any of this, Dedede returned to his room to think in peace. Upon entering, he had locked the door to ensure no one would come in to bother him.

Why was he the only one not affected by anything going on? At first he thought that maybe he _was_ being affected, seeing as Meta Knight had gone on as though he had always been outgoing and affectionate like that, but he soon dismissed that idea. After all, Meta Knight hadn't appeared to notice anything wrong with Kirby's attitude ("He's always mad!"), while Dedede was noticing that everything was wrong with everyone.

So what exactly _was_ wrong? Dedede knew now that he was on his own with this one, and it would be up to him to solve the current epidemic in Dreamland. His first thought was still that all of this was a dream. Perhaps Nightmare was gaining more power and aiming to return once again, and was giving Dedede some terrible dream where no one in Dreamland was the same. If that was the case, he would wake up eventually and could properly do something about the problem then. His next thought after that was that maybe he was in an alternate dimension, one where everyone's personalities were the opposite of what they usually were. He had no means that he could think of for proving this, but he was sure he'd come up with something if he gave it more thought. His final thought was similar to the Nightmare one. A wizard, or some manifestation of darkness, could have awakened and spread a curse across Dreamland. Unfortunately, this did not explain why Dedede himself was not affected. He knew from experience that he was always the first to fall under any strange curse or be possessed by whatever evil had attacked.

So while the third option was out for now, he decided that he would keep it around as a last resort. Right now, the thing that made the most sense would be to find a way to determine if this was an alternate dimension. He already established that it would be best to wait it out if this was an attack by Nightmare, so that took care of option one for now. Option two, meanwhile, could have some research put into it. As much as Dedede hating looking these things up and doing all of the work on his own, he couldn't think of any other option. Every single one of his waddle dees and knights were out of the question. He refused to put up with any of their nonsense.

Laying back on his bed to stare at the ceiling, Dedede continued his contemplation. How could he determine for good that this was an alternate dimension? Well, everyone appeared to have their personalities the opposite of what they usually were. While Bandana Dee used to be hardworking, respectful, and wore his heart on his sleeve, he was now lazy, rude, and practically emotionless. Kirby had been cheerful, naïve, and always willing to be a good friend to anyone and everyone. Now he appeared to be eternally angry, yelling at his friends, and very willing to commit homicide. And Meta Knight…Dedede honestly didn't even want to think about him at the moment.

Everyone else Dedede had come across so far had been in the same boat as those three. An alternate dimension seemed feasible, but he needed more proof here. Would people from other kingdoms be affected? Perhaps this problem didn't extend to other areas of Popstar and their galaxy. How would the royals and citizens of Patch Land and Floralia be acting right now? Or perhaps Ripple Star? Whenever trouble arose, it almost always stuck to Dreamland. There were some cases, of course, where other places were affected, but Dedede knew from experience that it was almost always only Dreamland. If push came to shove and it turned out that all of Popstar was affected, he would take some trips to other planets. This would be enough to prove whether this was an alternate dimension or not, right?

Dedede sighed. This all sounded like way too much work. Perhaps if he was adventuring and kicking some bad guy butt it'd be fine, but that wasn't what this was at all. This was research, traveling, and more than likely more insanity than he had the patience to put up with at the moment. And after everything was said and done, there wasn't even any guarantee that he'd have any conclusive results from his little expeditions. This was way too frustrating for him, and part of the reason why he always dropped all of the work like this onto Meta Knight and Bandana Dee. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that here. Or at least, not with Bandana Dee. It was possible that Meta Knight would be willing to help him, but Dedede currently refused to subject himself to that.

Decision made, Dedede set off to contact the other royals of Popstar, hoping to schedule some visits to their kingdoms. With the state Dreamland was in now, there was no use trying to properly rule it, so he could afford to leave to the other kingdoms for a while. All of this was for the good of his kingdom anyways, and whatever troubles befell Dreamland in the wake of his absence would be quickly overshadowed by his saving everyone from…well, themselves, honestly.

He made many calls, only getting in contact with a few of the other kingdoms right away. The others he left messages, which would hopefully be returned to later. He set up some dates for a visit, citing royal business as his reasoning. While nothing seemed too out of the ordinary based off of the two conversations he had, this wasn't enough to rule anything out. Simple phone calls were not enough to judge someone's attitude and personality right away, after all. To make any true judgement calls, he would need to wait until the specified dates to head out and check things out for himself. Until then, all he could do was wait for the other kingdoms and provinces to get back to him.

Once everything was said and done, Dedede found that his first date of travel would be within a week and a half. That meant that he would actually have to deal with everyone in Dreamland until that time, something that he wasn't all too thrilled about. There had to be something he could do in that time, though. The quicker he got to figuring out what was wrong, the quicker he could go about solving it.

After a day or so, Dedede—tired of hiding in his room from everyone—decided on a plan of action. If he couldn't properly travel to the other kingdoms to observe their royals and citizens yet, then he would observe the people in Dreamland. Sure, he already had a general idea of what was wrong, but what if something changed? What if he didn't actually have the big picture here? Yes, it was an absolute pain, and he really, _really_ didn't want to face any of Dreamland's citizens, but he managed to convince himself that he had no other choice. As long as he made it without losing either his mind or his temper, he would consider his efforts a success.

Starting his observations the very next day, he set out, making an active effort to avoid confrontation with any of the people he watched at all costs. While this might have been a possible detriment, it still left him with the opportunity to see how they all interacted with each other, and not just with him.

Over the course of the next few days, there were a few different things he noticed while watching everyone. For one, Bandana Dee almost never left his room. If he did leave, it was to order one of the other waddle dees to make him food or get something for him. If any of the other waddle dees tried to interact with him, he would either stare at them blankly for a few moments, or would tell them promptly to "screw off" and then walk away. There were rare occasions where one of the more violent waddle dees would try to pick a fight with Bandana Dee, though it never ended well. Bandana Dee either left ("I can't deal with this right now"), or he would smack the other waddle dee hard enough with his spear to knock them out. Over all, Dedede got the impression from his top waddle dee that he simply didn't care about anything anymore. He had been stuck with a truly apathetic personality.

The puffballs, meanwhile, were a bit more interesting. For one, they were both _always_ on the move. Whereas Bandana Dee remained in his room staring at a wall or coloring in a picture book all day, Kirby and Meta Knight were almost always doing something. Dedede was in fact convinced that Kirby in particular never even slept anymore. Furthermore, the two had somehow become completely inseparable. Despite Kirby's antagonistic attitude, Meta Knight followed him around like a lost puppy dog. Even more baffling was that Kirby actually let him.

Kirby's attitude was the most confusing of Dedede's three companions, if he was being honest with himself. The puffball spent his days running around Dreamland, usually stealing food from other civilians. There was a ridiculous amount of fighting wherever Kirby went, the puffball seemingly unable to keep his anger in check.

When encountering other people, one of two things usually happened: First, if someone happened to have food on or near them, Kirby would walk up and steal it. This would often cause lots of complaining (or arguments, if the person was feeling brave), and more often than not, Kirby would lose his patience with the person and hurt them with whatever ability he happened to have at the moment. The second thing that usually happened was that Meta Knight would cause the confrontations. The puffball had become incredibly sociable, but still didn't have the social skills to back up his newfound outgoing attitude. This led to many extremely awkward encounters. For whatever reason, Kirby always became even angrier whenever someone interacted with Meta Knight, and god forbid if the person managed to upset the blue puffball. This at least explained the looks Dedede had received from Kirby the day all of this nonsense began.

Kirby was going to end up killing someone soon, Dedede was sure of it. It was this fact that made him the most nervous. With how things were going, could he really afford to wait so long and check on the other kingdoms? What else could he do? Meta Knight was useless at keeping his fellow puffball in line. He didn't even try. In fact, Dedede had caught him _cheering_ for Kirby multiple times already. The blue puffball refused to participate in any sort of fight or confrontation, usually cowering behind Kirby if things got too heated, but that didn't stop him from fully supporting Kirby's violent streak.

The two puffballs were going to be the ones to drive Dedede completely insane, he could already tell.

At the moment, Dedede sat outside a café in a small town near Prism Plains. He was watching the puffballs intently, sipping slowly at his drink. With Bandana Dee's complete inactivity and Dedede's adamant refusal to ever return to the Halberd again, he had stuck to watching the puffballs more than anyone else.

Meta Knight had just run up to a random couple of cappies, and Kirby was already sending them the death glare. Dedede could already tell what the issue was: the cappies had ice cream. Honestly, he was surprised Kirby hadn't jumped at the opportunity to steal more food, but here they were, Meta Knight rambling on excitedly to the confused couple. Dedede couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see the two cappies looking increasingly uncomfortable by the moment. He had to give himself a quiet laugh at this. It had been what, eight days since all of the drastic personality changes had happened? With all of the social interaction Meta Knight had had in those eight days, Dedede would have thought he'd have gotten past his utter lack of social skills. But no, it appeared that no such thing would be happening anytime soon.

Now Meta Knight was gesturing at the ice cream that the cappies held. The cappies looked concerned and about ready to walk away, but that was when Kirby decided to get involved. He jumped in and snatched the ice cream cones away from the two, much to their dismay. Before anything else could even be done, Kirby ate both of the cones in one gulp, Meta Knight staring dejectedly at him for this.

With how upset and confused the cappies were, Dedede figured that he wouldn't be witnessing any sort of assault that day, but he was wrong. A large kibble blade had seen the entire ordeal, immediately confronting Kirby about it. _Then_ came the assault—actually no, nevermind. The kibble blade quickly went from yelling at Kirby to yelling at Meta Knight. Usually people stuck to only yelling at Kirby when these things happened, so this was an interesting change of events. Unfortunately, Dedede still couldn't hear what was being said, even with the raised voices.

What he could tell, though, was the very moment that Kirby more-or-less _snapped_. The puffball had been running around with the fighter ability for a good few hours now, and he put his skills to frighteningly good use (or bad use, he guessed). The kibble blade was practically destroyed in an instant, and while Dedede was morally obligated to stop the pink puffball from outright killing someone in front of him, he was too paralyzed with fear to do anything. Kirby had _never_ lost it this much. Everyone in the vicinity was watching on with horror, the cappies having already run away.

As much as he hated to admit it, this was the moment that caused Dedede to have his first epiphany. By that point, not even Meta Knight looked happy about what was going on. In fact, the blue puffball looked just as terrified as everyone else around him. He backed up ever so slightly, trying to get away from the slaughter before him, but it wasn't enough. A kick straight to the kibble blade's side sent him flying Meta Knight's way, and Dedede almost felt his heart stop. Except Meta Knight teleported out of there before any collisions could happen, and Dedede instead stared at the spot where he used to be.

Right, Meta Knight had special abilities, too. _Dimensional_ abilities. Almost instantly, Dedede's mind starting making all sorts of connections. What else had dimensional abilities? The Lor Starcutter. Where did the Lor Starcutter reside? In a different dimension. Dedede didn't _need_ to visit other kingdoms and planets in order to find out if he was in an alternate dimension. Magolor and the Lor Starcutter would be unaffected by anything going on in Dreamland, and if Dedede could get in contact with Halcandra, Magolor would be an immense amount of help. The Lor Starcutter would be able to determine if Dedede actually was in an alternate dimension, and if so, it could get him back to his correct one. Why didn't he think of any of this sooner? He just wasted eight days for no reason!

Unfortunately, if Dedede wanted to get in contact with Magolor, he'd need to be able to communicate across dimensions. The only person who could accomplish such a thing on Popstar was Meta Knight, the puffball who was currently nowhere to be seen. Dedede wanted to scream in frustration. Nothing ever seemed to go right anymore. His hopes had soared, though. There was the possibility that he was close to solving this infuriating issue once and for all!


	3. Chapter 3

Standing from his seat at the café, Dedede looked back at the scene before him. He still wasn't confident enough to try and step between Kirby when the puffball was in such a rage, but it didn't appear to matter. The kibble blade had been knocked out after that last kick, and Kirby was looking around wildly, gazing at every person in the area. Was he looking for Meta Knight? Well, Dedede was going to find him first. Having the world's most violent, angry puffball around would do nothing but hinder his attempts at contacting Magolor.

Kirby quickly stormed off, seemingly leaving the town. Other citizens took this time to check on the unconscious kibble blade, some making sure he was okay, others actually stealing from him. Dedede would have stepped in to stop all of this nonsense if he knew it would have done any good. As it stood, he had already made attempts at exerting his royal status a few days ago, and it did absolutely nothing. No one particularly cared about following the rules anymore, it seemed.

So instead of worrying about the beaten kibble blade, Dedede left, trying to anticipate where Meta Knight could have teleported to. The most obvious place was the Halberd, but had Meta Knight even been back there since this entire fiasco started? He had been too busy following Kirby around since everything began, and Kirby was of course always on the move. So would he avoid the Halberd or actually go there? It was difficult to say. With Meta Knight's new attitude, Dedede would have thought he'd be too afraid of Sailor Dee to actually return to the ship, but that was a fruitless argument. After all, if Meta Knight willingly put up with _Kirby_, then surely he could handle Sailor Dee, Mr. Drill Sergeant from Hell.

Perhaps it would be best to go in whatever direction Kirby _wasn't_ going in. Even if the pink puffball did happen to know where Meta Knight was at the moment, Dedede felt that it was in his best interest to avoid Kirby for as long as possible. He didn't particularly feel like getting murdered that day just because he needed Meta Knight to help him make a call.

In the chaos that followed Meta Knight's departure from the town, Dedede had seen Kirby run out in the direction of his house. If he was really out looking for Meta Knight, Dedede couldn't fathom why Kirby would start looking in his own house. Perhaps Kirby wasn't looking for him after all, though that didn't make much sense considering what Dedede had seen so far of the puffball's behavior. Either way, the Halberd was a good ways away from Kirby's home, so Dedede supposed that that would be the first place he'd check.

Leaving the town behind and taking off past his castle a little ways, Dedede saw the warship come into view in no time. There, sitting under a nearby tree, was a blue puffball. Needless to say, Dedede was thrilled. Not only had that been much easier than he thought it would be, but he didn't even have to deal with the other Meta-Knights who may or may not have been on the ship at the moment.

He strolled up to the puffball who had a dreamy look on his face, staring up at the clouds. Dedede was of course already disturbed and uncomfortable by this alone, but knew that it was only going to get worse from there on out. Unfortunately, this was something important that he needed to do, and this was his only chance to do it.

Meta Knight perked up as he saw the king come closer, an excited look on his face.

"Hi, Dedede!" he exclaimed, jumping up from his spot. "We haven't hung out in forever! I sometimes see you when Kirby and I are hanging out, but he always gives me this really scary look when I want to go talk to you, and you know how Kirby is with the yelling and attacking people thing so I always try—"

Dedede picked the puffball up and put a hand over his mouth. He didn't know what else to do. Wordlessly, so as to save his own sanity, he began walking back to Castle Dedede. Meta Knight didn't even struggle. He looked way too content with the position he was currently in, which honestly made Dedede worry even more for him.

They made it to the castle, Dedede heading in and immediately going into the throne room. The communications system was located there, and hopefully there wouldn't be anyone using it already. He had seen some waddle dees using it themselves already (an action which was strictly forbidden without permission, but was pointless to try enforcing now), and he didn't particularly feel like manhandling a possibly large group of waddle dees away. Thankfully, the throne room was empty, save for one lone waddle dee sleeping on the throne.

Had this been any other moment, Dedede would have stormed over there to kick the disrespectful waddle dee's butt out of his castle, but he managed to refrain from doing anything so drastic. After all, if the waddle dee was so blatantly disrespectful right now, then its proper personality must be one of strong loyalty, right? Well, he sure hoped so. It still pissed him off greatly to see such a thing. In order to make himself feel a little bit better, he set Meta Knight down in favor of grabbing the waddle dee, throwing it out of the throne room and shutting the doors to lock them.

Turning back to Meta Knight, he quickly pointed to the communications system.

"I need you to get me in contact with Magolor," he ordered simply, hoping against hope that Meta Knight would dutifully obey like…always…

Right, opposite personalities and everything. Meta Knight was definitely not going to obey him right away, if the confused look he was receiving at the moment said anything.

"Why?" the blue puffball asked, face suddenly taking on a happier look. "Ooh, are we gonna hang out with him?"

"Yes we are," Dedede spat out a little too quickly. Just play along and get the puffball to cooperate. "I want to invite him over so we can hang out on his ship!"

Meta Knight gave a disgusted look at that, which made Dedede pause. What? What did he do wrong?

"Ew, do we have to? I hate having to go on airships."

Wait, what? He hated going on airships? That didn't make sense. That didn't line up with what he'd seen so far. Meta Knight was supposed to have the same interests, wasn't he? Suddenly, Dedede felt his irritation boiling over.

"But you still like ice cream!" he immediately blurted out, overwhelmed by his confusion.

Meta Knight stared at him as though he had gone insane, which was understandable. Ice cream wasn't usually related to airships of all things. Except in this case it was. Their personalities were different, but shouldn't they still have the same interests? He already knew that Meta Knight still liked ice cream and other sweets, and Kirby still liked just about any food (but shortcake and tomatoes especially), so why didn't Meta Knight still like airships?

He sighed, a realization coming to him. Taste wasn't related to personality. Hobbies _were_ related to that. And puffballs were a species of literal black holes, so of course the only two in Dreamland would still be obsessed with food. This even explained why Meta Knight hadn't returned to the Halberd since everything started. There was no reason to panic; everything was just fine. Well, mostly. Meta Knight was still giving him a perplexed look.

"…do you have any ice cream here?" the puffball questioned, if only to break the silence.

"Yes," Dedede admitted, seeing Meta Knight's face light up, "_but_," he stressed, "we have to contact Magolor and get him over here before I can get you any."

Meta Knight nodded furiously at this, hopping on the spot in his excitement. "Yes! Thank you, Dedede!" he shouted, jumping up and hugging the king. Dedede shuddered at the action, but obliged the puffball and returned the hug anyways. "Kirby ate all of the ice cream I was asking some people to share earlier and I was really upset—"

"I'm sure you were," Dedede interrupted immediately. "Now, let's go talk to Magolor, okay?"

"Yeah!" Meta Knight agreed, jumping out of Dedede's arms and running over to the communications system.

He sat in front of the system, working his dimensional powers. Dedede wasn't even all too sure how it all worked, but he had used Meta Knight's powers to get in contact with Magolor before, so it wasn't like he was just running on a whim. Before he knew it, the call began, Meta Knight trying to reach the Lor Starcutter in Halcandra. Of course, Dedede remembered this being an issue in the past, as Magolor hadn't even been in Halcandra's dimension when they had last tried. Meta Knight's abilities weren't nearly as strong as the Lor Starcutter's, which had left them with no way of finding and contacting Magolor until he returned to his proper dimension. Hopefully that wouldn't be an issue this time, as Dedede didn't think he'd ever have another shot at getting Meta Knight alone like this.

It took longer than Dedede had thought it would, and he wasn't sure if it was because Magolor wasn't in Halcandra, or because Meta Knight looked so painfully distracted.

"Meta Knight, stop staring at pictures on the wall and actually do your job," Dedede scolded, irritated.

The puffball jumped and turned to give Dedede a pout, though he quickly turned back to the communications system and focused on it again. Just when Dedede was about to call the whole thing off, there was a soft ping on the device, followed by an excited cheer from Meta Knight.

Dedede almost cheered along with him, instead whispering a quick "thank _god_" under his breath. Now he could get Magolor to tell him what was going on with this dimension, and hopefully everything would be taken care of. He almost sat back in his throne, satisfied, when one slight issue occurred to him. Within seconds, Dedede leaped back out of his throne to stop what was about to happen, but he was too late.

"Hello?" came the tentative voice of Magolor on the system.

"_Hi Magolor_! How are you doing?" Meta Knight instantly exclaimed, much to Dedede's horror.

There was a pause on the other end, and Dedede was certain that the Halcandran was going to hang up. Thankfully, he eventually responded.

"Um…who _is_ this?"

Before any more damage could be done, Dedede hurriedly grabbed Meta Knight up in his arms and shouted back into the system's receiver, "_This is King Dedede_!" Good job, Dedede. Magolor would surely respond well to even more shouting.

"Uh, King Dedede? Is everything, um, okay?"

Why Magolor hadn't hung up on them already was beyond him, but he wasn't going to question a miracle when he saw one.

"Yes, yes, everything's—" No, don't tell him that. Everything was absolutely _not_ fine. "Nothing's fine, Magolor. I need your help." He hated the desperation that was clear in his voice, but this was a serious matter.

"We're gonna get ice cream after this!" Meta Knight informed uselessly, reminding Dedede that he never covered the puffball's mouth to shut him up.

"Oh for god's sake," he muttered, wondering if Magolor was able to catch it.

"That's…cool?" Magolor sounded so uncertain that it wasn't even funny. He probably thought he was getting a prank call.

"Magolor, ignore him. I need your help! Everyone in Dreamland's gone completely insane!" he practically begged, praying Magolor would take him seriously.

"Yeah, I can tell. Who's with you?"

"_Meta Knight_!"

There was a _very_ long pause after that revelation. Did he finally hang up? Did they lose the connection? Oh no, they probably scared him off, didn't they?

"Do you want to come over and get ice cream with us? I'll invite Kirby!" Meta Knight offered.

For some reason, that managed to bring Magolor back.

"I don't really know if I want to come over, honestly," the Halcandran admitted, sounding mildly terrified.

"Please?" Meta Knight whined. "I don't think Dedede will let me have any if you don't come over, and Kirby keeps eating all the candy we find!"

"Magolor, I need you to tell me what dimension I'm in right now," Dedede spoke over the puffball, hoping to get Magolor's attention back. "I've got to be in an alternate dimension. No one's the same! I mean, you hear this, right? This isn't Meta Knight!"

"What do you mean I'm not Meta Knight?" the puffball gave him an irritated look.

"Oh," was all Magolor said in response. "I mean, looking at the coordinates of our current call, it looks like you're in your normal dimension. But I guess I'm not very familiar with alternate dimensions? The Lor _would _have a better time getting that information if I was actually there, but, uh…" he trailed off, clearly not wanting to go anywhere near wherever Dedede was.

"You don't even have to stop by Popstar, I swear. Just come to this dimension and call me afterwards!" he was still begging, trying so hard to convince Magolor to assist him.

"Hm," Magolor pondered. "Well, it's like I said; I'm not very familiar with alternate dimensions. The info I'm getting just from our call makes it look like you're still in the same dimension, so if I were to head out with these coordinates, I would end up in, you know, your proper dimension. So that wouldn't help you much if you do happen to be somewhere else. But, I guess…" he paused, sounding hesitant to continue further, "I guess, um, I could work with the connection Meta Knight has with me right now instead of following any set coordinates."

Dedede could understand the hesitance. He wasn't particularly thrilled to be working with the puffball either, except at least Magolor wouldn't have to interact with Meta Knight much, would he?

"Just do that! I need to get this problem solved before I go insane!"

"Okay, okay, fine. I can do that! Hold on," Magolor spoke. There was the sound of some machinery being run on the other end, Magolor likely establishing a route to Dedede's dimension using the Lor's and Meta Knight's dimensional abilities. "Okay, so," Magolor returned, "the connection here's a bit iffy on your end. Can you fix that, Meta Knight?"

The puffball in question had been zoning out at a large picture of a waddle dee on the wall, which Dedede noticed after Magolor's statement.

"Hey, what did I say about paying attention?" he scolded him again, shaking the puffball in his hold lightly.

Meta Knight returned his attention to the call, looking a bit sheepish.

"Oh, okay, good! Just keep your focus like that and we should be good, okay, Meta Knight?" Magolor instructed, Meta Knight nodding happily in response with a sharp "yep!" Dedede was again reminded of how much of a child Meta Knight was acting like. Even Magolor had starting talking to him as though the puffball was even younger than Kirby

"Alright," Magolor continued, "this won't take long. I'll let you know when the Lor makes it to the dimension you're in!"

Dedede acknowledged the Halcandran, thrilled at being so close to getting this whole ordeal solved. He refrained from hugging Meta Knight tighter and doing a little dance, as much as he would have really liked to. Unfortunately, Meta Knight currently appeared to have no attention span whatsoever, and such an act would more than likely distract him from keeping up the connection between himself and the Lor.

It took a good fifteen minutes for Magolor to get back to them; quite a feat, considering Dedede remembered the trip between Halcandra and Popstar taking at least half an hour with the Lor. Magolor must have been putting some upgrades on the ship, or found a better way to access the ship's power. Had Meta Knight been in a right state of mind, Dedede knew the puffball would be all over wanting to learn more about this, but as it stood, he currently thought airships were gross or something.

"You're in the right dimension, your majesty." Magolor's words didn't register right away, but once they did, Dedede instantly felt dread in the pit of his stomach. When it was quiet for too long, Magolor spoke up again.

"King Dedede? Are you still there?"

"Yeah!" Meta Knight responded for him. "But I think you broke him. He's just staring at me right now, and it's kinda creeping me out."

"Well, uh, I did all the readings, and nothing appears to be off. The Lor says that this is for sure not some alternate dimension."

"I coulda told you that!" Meta Knight boasted. "Everyone's been fine except Dedede! He's been acting kinda funny lately. Like, he keeps staring at me like I keep doing something wrong all the time, and I don't think I do, but you never know, I mean. Kirby tells me Dedede's planning something terrible again and that we need to watch out for him, but he's our friend, so I don't think he's gonna do anything bad! And he's my boss, so what's he gonna do to me? I mean, I guess he could fire me, but—"

"Meta Knight, please _shut up_," Dedede groaned, his patience for the little nuisance having run out the moment Magolor gave him the bad news.

The blue puffball did just that, looking close to crying, but Dedede ignored him.

"This can't be right," he muttered. "What the heck is wrong?"

"I'm sorry," Magolor apologized. "I don't know what else to tell you. You're in the same dimension as always, so something else is going on. Can you tell me exactly what's wrong over there? Is it just on Popstar? Or is this whole galaxy affected? Do you know?"

"I don't know anything, Magolor!" Dedede complained. "I've only seen the state of Dreamland right now, so I don't even know if it affects the rest of Popstar yet. Everyone's acting the complete opposite of how they usually do! You already know what's up with Meta Knight, but Kirby's acting like a homicidal lunatic, and Bandana refuses to do absolutely anything!"

"Ah, well, um, I would suggest figuring out where else is affect—"

"I'm trying! I have a visit scheduled for one kingdom in about three days, and I'll be heading out to other places on Popstar after that. I'm even going to Floralia and Patch Land, so that'll tell me if anywhere outside of Popstar is affected. I'm just getting really tired of all this nonsense!"

"Okay, well again, I'm sorry," he apologized again. "It has to be some sort of curse. That's all I can think of, honestly. Have you noticed anything besides strange personality changes going on?"

"No," Dedede muttered, "and even if all of this _is_ some curse, why haven't I been affected? Isn't Kirby the one who's supposed to not be affected by these things?"

"I'm sorry; I don't know. I've only been to your dimension a couple times before, so I don't know much outside of what the Lor has for information."

"Why don't you come help me, then? I'm all alone here, and I'm _this_ close to losing it," Dedede threatened.

"Oh, um, I can't…"

"You mean you don't want to, right?" Dedede nearly growled. "Come _on_! You owe us one, and you know it! Get your butt over here!"

"How can I possibly help on a planet I barely know anything about? We don't even know what we're looking for! I'll be useless to you!" Magolor tried to stress. "Besides, what if I end up getting affected by this curse, too?"

"Boy, Magolor, I don't know. Will you stay the same, or act like a power-mad lunatic? After all, you're probably still just some two-faced liar!"

Dedede instantly regretted his words the moment he said them, seeing as how Magolor was so painfully silent after that. He just ruined his only chance at getting someone to help him out, didn't he?

_Click_!

And with that sound alone, Dedede knew for sure he had just royally screwed up. The connection between them was lost and the communications system shut down. Dedede stared at the system, a blank look on his face. _Damn it_! How could he let his own irritation get the best of him like that? He just scared off his only potential help, and was now truly stuck solving this issue on his own.

It was then that he noticed the quiet sobbing from the puffball in his arms, who had more-or-less been forgotten about during the latter half of the conversation. Having come down from his anger and irritation (feeling more disappointed in himself than anything), Dedede hated to admit that he actually felt _bad_ about everything that had happened over the course of that entire conversation. So this was how he found himself sitting in his throne, trying in vain to comfort the crying puffball he held.

After a good amount of time had passed, Meta Knight had managed to calm himself down, still cuddled against Dedede's side. The king, meanwhile, was doing his best to sate his ever growing panic. Solving issues like this wasn't his forte at all, and he wasn't quite sure how he was going to go about figuring anything out without any sort of help. He had always relied on Bandana Dee and Meta Knight for this kind of stuff, so that he could stick to running out and kicking whoever's butt needed to be kicked at the moment.

Sighing, he looked down at the puffball dozing off in his arms.

"Hey, Meta Knight. You wanna help me save the world?" he asked, not expecting much.

"Nope," he replied simply. Just as Dedede figured.

"Would you want to help Kirby save the world?" he pressed on.

Meta Knight appeared to ponder that question for a moment, frowning about it. "Only if he made me. I don't really wanna save the world."

"But then you can save lots of people from going insane."

"So? I don't care."

"What if people end up dying?"

"Just let them die."

It was disturbing to hear such things, not just from Meta Knight, but also from the cheerful, carefree puffball he had become. This was _definitely_ the complete opposite of Meta Knight. Still, as disturbing as they were, Dedede wasn't even surprised by the responses he got. At the moment, he was too drained and upset at himself to become panicked or irritated over the out-of-character behavior. If anything, he was ready to fall asleep in his throne along with Meta Knight.


	4. Chapter 4

Just when he was about to fall into a light nap, a loud crash from outside the throne room got his attention, snapping him back awake. He stared at the locked doors, weighing the pros and cons of investigating the noise. Meta Knight looked even more curious, hopping out of his arms and running over towards the doors. Figuring it would be best to stop the puffball from escalating whatever situation was going on out there, Dedede followed after.

The two unlocked the doors and stepped out, quickly discovering the source of the commotion a short way down the hall. Dedede could feel himself seize up in sudden dread. Oh god, no. There at the end of the hall stood a waddle dee with a bandana on his head, facing a very enraged, pink puffball. A broken vase sat between the two, and Dedede vaguely wondered which one of them was the one who broke it. Either was plausible.

Meta Knight perked up upon seeing his fellow puffball, shouting his name in excitement.

Upon hearing his name, Kirby brought his attention from the waddle dee back to Meta Knight. His rage died down ever so slightly at the sight of his…friend, but picked back up immediately at the sight of the king besides said friend.

Dedede was torn. He desperately wanted some assistance in solving the curse or whatever was going on, but on the other hand, was getting involved with Kirby worth it? While he had no idea what was going on at the moment, it looked almost as though Kirby and Bandana Dee were prepared to fight to the death, and that was certainly something that needed to be avoided. Perhaps distracting the two from whatever was going on would be for the best.

Meta Knight was hanging back by Dedede for the moment, since he never got involved with any of Kirby's fights. He was likely waiting for Kirby and Bandana Dee to go at it so that he could cheer for the pink puffball. The problem here was that Kirby was now paying more attention to Dedede, who happened to be the unfortunate person standing right beside Meta Knight. Experience told him that Kirby did not appreciate such a thing occurring, no matter _who_ was standing next to the blue puffball.

"Kirby!" Dedede began, against his better judgement.

Now they had even Bandana Dee's attention, much to Dedede's shock. The waddle dee turned around to face the two newcomers, a blank look on his face. The grip on his spear lessened ever so slightly, so at least he didn't appear to want to fight either his king or co-worker. Surprisingly, Kirby didn't look so much enraged, as just really confused.

"I'm going on an adventure!"

Kirby gave him a perplexed look, the anger on his face returning somewhat.

"There's a curse on Dreamland that's making all of you guys act funny!" he continued, praying that Kirby wouldn't react too terribly towards his pleas. "How would you like to help me out?"

"No," Kirby replied immediately, nearly cutting Dedede off before he could finish his question.

"Okay, but think about it. Someone's causing this curse, and that someone needs to get their butt kicked. Are you following me here? Not only will I give you the honors of kicking this guy's butt, but I'll even let you steal whatever food you want along the way! You have free reign to do whatever you want, as long as you help me out!"

"I can do all of those things on my own. I don't need you," Kirby responded.

"But I can guarantee you it will be a tough fight!"

"I don't want to," Kirby growled, irritation beginning to show through. "Leave me alone."

Dedede, still upset at himself for screwing up the conversation with Magolor, wisely chose to back off. He stepped back slightly, raising his arms in defeat.

"He thought we were in an alternate dimension at first, but Magolor told him that he was wrong, and that there was a curse instead!" Meta Knight supplied unhelpfully. "He asked me if I was gonna help him out too, after he said a bunch of really rude things to Magolor."

"You were actually listening that whole time?" Dedede asked, incredulous.

"Yeah! You were being super mean to both of us! You're almost as mean as Kirby!" The longer Meta Knight went on, the more Dedede began to realize that this was probably something Kirby _didn't_ need to be hearing about the two's time together. "I was crying for a really long time, you know, and you just kept ignoring me! You could have at least said you were sorry, but—"

"Meta Knight, _please_," Dedede begged him in a hushed tone, staring fearfully at the infuriated puffball stomping down the hall towards them. Bandana Dee, the lazy jerk, did absolutely nothing to stop him, simply shrugging when he caught Dedede's look.

"Here!" Dedede shouted in panic, suddenly shoving Meta Knight at Kirby. The two nearly collided, though Kirby caught and steadied the other puffball. The two looked completely taken aback, and Dedede took this time to retreat into the safety of the throne room, locking the doors behind him. Of course, if Kirby really wanted to get to him, he could easily break his way into the room. He had done it in the past numerous times, after all. Dedede could think of no other option though, acting on impulse out of pure terror.

Time seemed to go by forever, Dedede hiding near his throne in anticipation, holding his hammer. Kirby currently still had the fighter ability on him, which was a mostly short-range ability aside from one or two moves. He would be relatively safe for a good few seconds if the puffball chose to break in.

He froze, grip tightening on his hammer, as he heard the doors unlock and slowly open. In walked Bandana Dee, no one else following him. Not even bothering to shut the one opened door, the waddle dee strolled in, taking his time. He didn't even acknowledge the king hiding by his throne, instead walking over to the communications system. Picking it up, he dialed in a number, sitting patiently as the phone began to ring.

Dedede watched all of this, stunned. This was the most he had seen Bandana Dee accomplish since this entire fiasco began. Just what was he doing?

"I need a pizza delivered," he said bluntly as someone answered.

Well, he was ordering a pizza. Of all things he could have possibly decided to do immediately after a confrontation with Kirby. The waddle dee remained blunt while ordering his food, saying as little as possible while still trying to get his point across. It was interesting to watch, to say the least. Still, where had Kirby gone? Did he leave the moment Dedede had escaped into the throne room? Dedede assumed that the only reason he had shown up at the castle in the first place was to find Meta Knight, so perhaps after he got what he wanted, he simply just took off. He couldn't be too sure though, and Kirby could be waiting right around the corner to kick his butt if he wasn't careful.

Bandana Dee ended his conversation, the communications system shutting down in its wake. He then promptly plopped himself down where he was standing, staring blankly at the spear still in his hands. Tentatively, Dedede approached his top waddle dee. Perhaps he would be more willing to talk to him today?

"Bandana, is Kirby still out there?"

Bandana merely glanced at his king out of the corner of is eye, quickly returning to his oh-so-interesting spear. Dedede knew better than to push him by now, and dropped the issue. Taking his interest elsewhere, Dedede regarded the open throne door once again. Tightening his grip on his hammer, he rounded up all of his courage and approached said door. A few quick glances out into the hallways told him more than he needed to know. The puffballs were gone. Kirby wasn't going to commit regicide that day, thankfully. Letting loose a sigh of relief, Dedede finally felt himself relaxing.

Dealing with the two puffballs was way too dangerous, and Dedede fervently hoped that no other reason to interact with either of them would come up. Even if Meta Knight now lived by some butchered form of pacifism, going anywhere near him instantly garnered the wrath of Kirby, which was not something anyone wanted.

Right now, he had to think. Sure, he gave a good go at getting some assistance, but in the end it was just as pointless as he had figured it would be. Neither of the puffballs wanted anything to do with saving Dreamland. Bandana was very obviously out of the question, and Dedede wasn't even going to attempt talking to him anymore. Magolor, the only help he could have possibly gotten, had been thoroughly insulted by him, and was definitely not going to offer any assistance now.

Was there anyone else he could go to? Well, perhaps if other kingdoms and planets weren't affected by this curse (if Magolor's assumptions were correct), then perhaps they could help out. Didn't he once hear Kirby talking about the prince of Patch Land? Surely he would be capable and willing enough to help out. Or (as much as Dedede _hated_ this possibility), he could resort to asking Floralia for help. Taranza could help him find something out, couldn't he? Dedede shuddered at the thought. He wasn't very thrilled about anything having to do with Floralia and its people. It had become almost taboo to mention anything about bees or wasps in the castle since that particular incident, though he supposed his fear of the insects had died down at least a little since then. Well, that's what he kept telling himself. What if Taranza turned into that…that _thing_ Queen Sectonia had become?

He shook his head of these thoughts. That wasn't possible anymore, and was the exact reason why he had returned to Floralia in the first place. The Dimensional Mirror had been smashed for good, and wouldn't be causing so many problems anymore. Nodding to himself, he hardened his resolve. Taranza had already proven that he could be trusted, and had been doing an amazing job with running Floralia since Sectonia's death. So when it came time to visit the floating isles, he'd make sure to have some sort of argument on why Taranza should help him out, preferably without offending him so bad that he never wanted to speak to him again. That would be good.

Okay, so he still had options. The prince of Patch Land option seemed like the better of the two, but he had both options regardless. He could work with this. So, he might not be in an alternate dimension like he had hoped he would be, but it was fine. Kirby had fixed numerous curses in the past with no issue, so why couldn't Dedede fix one as well? He was just as capable as the pink puffball after all, and for once he was the only one _not_ being possessed or cursed or anything of the like. This was his moment to shine!

All he could do now was to keep playing the waiting game. There was no way he would know where to start with stopping a curse, especially when he had no idea what was causing the curse in the first place. So what else could he do? Surely either Patch Land's prince or Taranza could set him off in the right direction. Taranza especially. _Someone_ had to have found the Dimensional Mirror that messed Sectonia up, right? He seemed like a reliable enough guy to go to for curses and whatnot. And what about Patch Land's prince? Together with Kirby, he had stopped that Yin-Yarn guy from spreading his weird yarn-related curses around. The guy _had_ to know a lot about this kind of stuff!

Panic finally settling back down, Dedede could safely say that everything was okay again. Sure, that entire conversation with Magolor had sent him into a massive panic attack, but everything was back to being okay. He could go with the same plan he had before, with visiting other kingdoms and planets, but this time he would ask around about curses and suspicious wizards. The conversation with Magolor had at least taken the alternate dimension possibility out of the loop. Only two possibilities remained: either a wizard did it, or Nightmare did it. At this point, Dedede was sort of hoping that Nightmare was causing everything, as that meant that all of this nonsense would eventually end, and he'd have his usual companions around to help him out once he awoke. It had been eight days without any sign of this actually being a dream though, so his hopes were growing thin.

Leaving Bandana behind in the throne room, Dedede decided that he'd take a quick break in his room, seeing as he had had such a stressful day already. On the way, he heard muttering from various waddle dees, most of which caused Dedede's panic to return ever so slightly. The waddle dees were complaining at each other about puffballs. Kirby and Meta Knight were apparently still in the castle. Well, you know what? That was fine. Dedede wasn't going to let himself worry about it. He could just hide in his room, and the two would eventually go away.

A sudden thought came to him, making him stop in his tracks. Kirby had become notorious for stealing people's food, and Dedede had told Meta Knight earlier that there was for sure ice cream in the castle. For god's sake, now he had to make sure he wasn't being robbed of all of his food. The irony of this was not lost on him.

Sighing, preparing himself for a showdown between himself and an angry pink puffball, Dedede switched directions, heading for the kitchens. Maybe if he was lucky, all of this could be settled without any death or destruction, though he doubted it. He had seen more than enough of Kirby's actions and behavior to tell him that at least one fight was going to go down in those kitchens today. It could be between Kirby and an unsuspecting waddle dee, or between him and the king himself. Dedede was silently praying for the former option.

Reaching the kitchens, everything was eerily silent. A large group of waddle dees stood near the doorway, staring inside with intrigue, others with distress. Dedede could easily see over the large group, his size relative to the waddle dees making things a hundred times easier. Inside one of the kitchens was indeed two puffballs. The room was in a bit of a mess, but Dedede knew that it was like that long before the puffballs had shown up. All of his waddle dees had become massive slobs recently, and there was no use in trying to clean up after all of them. In the middle of the huge mess sat Meta Knight, eagerly digging into a gigantic sundae. Over by the walls floated Kirby, digging through different cupboards and cabinets, taking whatever food he found.

Dedede tried not to audibly sigh at this. Well, at least Meta Knight was showing some small amount of restraint. Kirby was outright ransacking the entire kitchen. Really, this was the _last_ thing he needed to be dealing with at the moment. Having two rogue puffballs (one of which was extremely dangerous) in his kitchen was probably the worst thing that could possibly happen at that moment. He absolutely did _not_ need two black holes going through all of his food!

Mind made up, Dedede began pushing through the group of waddle dees. The very audible complaints that followed from the group was enough to catch the puffballs' attention, and Kirby sent an instant glare Dedede's way. The king didn't care anymore, though. He was fed up, and no amount of fear over the pink puffball was going to stop him from getting rid of the little nuisance!

Raising his hammer, Dedede charged straight at Kirby.

* * *

He awoke sometime later, confused and in pain. It was dark, and the large crowd of waddle dees was gone along with the two puffballs. It was dark in the kitchen, the sky outside the window indicating that it was nighttime. Sitting up, he heard himself let loose a particularly loud groan. His head was killing him.

Feeling something strange brushing against the top of his head, he reached up and pulled a sticky note off of his hat. The note read "_I'm sorry,_" in Meta Knight's (somehow) still recognizable handwriting, and Dedede crumpled it up in irritation.

Kirby hadn't been messing around. Sure, Dedede could put up a pretty good battle against him, but in the end Kirby was still the better fighter (he had the fighter ability and everything!). A successful kick to the face had been enough to knock the king right out, it seemed. Dedede remembered getting _some_ hits in on the puffball, but wow, he had gotten a lot better at fighting recently! There was a reason Dedede had been tiptoeing his way around Kirby until that point. He really did need to take a break and get some proper sleep if he was getting stupid enough to take the puffball on without hesitation.

Managing to stand back up without too much difficulty, Dedede checked out the state of his food supplies. The kitchen he was currently in was completely ransacked, of course, but that didn't take into account the _other_ kitchens. He had several of them for a reason. Thankfully, visiting the other kitchens revealed that they were in safe condition. The puffballs must have had enough with just the one before leaving to do whatever. Dedede sincerely hoped that they had actually left this time. This was the last time he ever promised Meta Knight ice cream again. It led to Dedede making stupid decisions, getting knocked out by Kirby, and losing one fifth of his food supply.

Whoever was causing this curse, they were _so_ dead. Dedede couldn't handle this nonsense any longer.

* * *

**A/N:** I got a couple of reviews concerning the genre of this fic, and after going over them I decided to change the genre of this fic to "mystery/angst". If anyone has anything else to add to this though, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to see what I can do about it. I'm always open to constructive criticism!


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